Battle Royale S1R1 Aftermath
by Familiar47
Summary: Skullene gets a few surprises as she tries to get out of the cold.


Battle Royale Aftermath

Xxx

Skullene stared out at the curtain of white that blocked her view of the world outside of the little cave she had hidden in. Using some leftover fabrics and a few small blocks of kindling from her PAK, she had managed to get a fire going further back away from the cold winds. She was sitting on a rock, close to the fire with her back to the cave entrance and with one leg dangling over the shallow pool that surrounded the small island she had set the fire on.

"Alright, time...time..." She sighed. "Okay...how long has it been...?"

She looked at the timer on her right gauntlet. "One hour, seventeen minutes." Twenty four hours since she had defeated the Defective Ray in single combat, faking his death, what a coincidence! "And when I checked the compass the sun was in the west...and my shadow was at this angle..." She was looking at numbers she had carved into the stone floor next to her with her wrist blades. "So it is...three oh clock on this planet...lovely."

Three oh clock yesterday and all was well.

Three oh clock today and all had gone to hell.

She was cold and exhausted from her trek through the ice section of Planet Doom. The city section was not far west from her, but the weather forced her to stop. After that, hopefully this blasted weather would improve to something she could stand!

Her wounds had healed luckily, but the faint outline of a few still remained. One still remained on her face, one of the many cuts Ray had given her during the course of their blade, gun and fist fights. They had switched weapons so often she had lost count. The worst damage was when he had dumped her into a lake, but that was long healed. The scar was on her face, going over her right eye. It was merely a slightly more pale strip of green flesh, but it was noticeable.

Honestly, she wouldn't mind spiting her own face a bit, her 'beauty' had been what made Red ask, wait no, _demand_ she be his mate. When she refused, he made her into a pleasure drone, resulting in her treason, imprisonment, the sexual assaults committed by the now late Admiral Riz, and her exile from civil society...and then her ending up here.

All traces back to the basic wants of some tall bastard who wanted to boink her. Typical though, just not as common in Irken society.

Just like it wasn't common for drones to keep SNEAKING UP on her! Spinning around and raising the assault rifle she had taken from the defeated Ray and jammed it right into the lens of the drone that floated down behind her. "You have three seconds before blow you away to get the hell back. I said I want ten _florping_ feet at all times!"

"Wait! Wait!" The drone raised its arms. "Contestant Skullene you've been chosen for an _interview_!"

"Interview?" Skullene lowered the rifle a bit. "Alright, you got me interested. Keep going."

"In this interview you'll be answering questions and personal calls from audience members," The drone, now sounding more confident that she would not shoot it continued. "It's all for you girl!"

"...are we live right now?"

"Nope!"

"...Alright," Skullene sat back down on her rock. "Need me to sit anywhere else?"

"Aw naw! That's good!" The drone began to circle her. "The camera loves you! And that scar on your eye will make you more impressive."

"Gee, thanks." Skullene glared at it. "Just get started so I can go on with my life."

"Very well then!" The drone hovered over her. "We're live in three ,two, one!"

"**Welcome people of the galaxy to Aftermath Royale!" **That tall Irken host from before reappeared. **"I'm your host Skal and we are interviewing the bounty hunter who's back from Painomania, one of the victors from Round One, Skullene!"**

No doubt when this interview was broadcasted many focused on it to see Skullene, once the conqueror of three worlds and among the best Invaders in the empire now reduced to fighting in a tournament for her life. Many would want her dead, both Irken and otherwise, but many wouldn't mind seeing her live through Battle Royale.

"**We'll start off with a few questions."** Skal said. **"Question Number One: did you actually try to kill the Tallest of our fair empire?"**

"Does it matter right now if I did?" Skullene asked.

"**Are you dodging the question?"**

"Nope, I'm asking the relevance of a question that every Irken in the empire could answer correctly for you." Skullene frowned. "You already know I tried."

"**That brings me to question number two: if you're such a great assassin and warrior, then how did you fail in your oh so mighty quest for treason? Huh? Huh? Huh?"** Skal quoted from a card he was holding.

"Unforeseen circumstance," Skullene sighed. "Take a look at the date and location of the Tallest when I tried to kill them and you'll get your answer."

"**That's rather ambiguous! Something you want to keep hidden perhaps-?"**

"No actually I'm saying this is a question even a smeet could find the answer to on any old news report mentioning me." Skullene snapped. "Hell, you can find it in the Biography they wrote for me after I was jailed."

"**Okay...Number Three: Is it true that you were demoted to Pleasure Drone for insolence?"**

"Insolence meaning I didn't want to have Tallest Red's _Ligni_ in my _Troitusun_ and refused to be his mate." Skullene crossed her arms. "Being his mate involved leaving active service, something I wasn't ready to do, and plus I didn't want to mimic his junk food diet. So since he's a spoiled brat he sent me to Consorta to give any jerk that came through an _Ickan Provain._"

"**Alrighty then! Number Four:...are you responsible for the murder of Admiral Riz and most of the thirty some staff from the Painomania Prison complex?"**

Skullene stiffened, and slowly looked up at the drone. "You've got _saccen_ to ask me that."

"**Well did you?"** The host leaned in. **"Did you murder thirty honest working soldiers and workers along with a highly ranked Admiral who dropped his duties to visit you repeatedly?"**

"..._visit me?_" If Skullene had pupils, they'd have shrunk to the size of a comma or a period like the ones on the page of a book...a small book. "He said he _visited me?_" She stood up. "Listen you _Shoo-Shen_-!"

"**Sounds to me like you're a little defensive about this."** The host looked and sounded smug; florping ass hole.

"NO!" Skullene growled. "You will listen to me. Admiral _Jizz_ sure did _visit_ me alright! To do what Red wanted. _Seven times_ in a row! So yes, I murdered him as revenge for what he did to me in that prison."

"**According to the survivors all he ever did was chat with you-"**

"And of course they'd say that, because if they argued they'd be dead!" Skullene growled. "He _raped_ me! Seven, florping, times! SEVEN TIMES!" She hissed. "I dare you to look me in the eye, tell me you've been hurt and disgraced in the worst way possible, and say you wouldn't take vengeance when you had the chance!"

"**Vengeance? You murdered-"**

"Yes we established that!" Skullene laughed bitterly. "I _murdered_ Admiral Riz for violating me. I _murdered_ and butchered the rest of Painomania for letting it happen. I _murdered_ them one at a time and most of them never even knew they were dying until I shot or cut them! I _murdered _over a dozen others to escape the Military Police when they came searching for me. And I definitely _murdered_ a lot more than just forty three Irkens during my career as a bounty hunter. I just murdered another Irken yesterday! So to answer your question: YES!" She grinned. "I'm a murderer because this precious empire made me adapt to become one! I'm a murderer and I enjoyed every single time I murdered the people who hurt me or got in my way. So take that and shove it up your _asunim!_"

There was silence for several moments.

"**Well, the tournament will avenge those Irkens anyhow." **Skal waved one hand dismissively, keeping his cool. **"You get a few private calls for a break. Sadly I'm not allowed to let our audience hear it nor listen myself; damn Privacy of BR Combatants bylaws. Pretty sure there'd be a few worthwhile things to hear. We just went to commercials on the live broadcast and let out a little...advertisement saying you would be taking calls...and here is our first!"**

Xxx

Back on the _Massive..._

"That wasn't really much of a good job to smear her," Red yawned. "We may need somebody more...knowledgeable."

"Yeah, if anything he's making her look better to the rebels!" Purple added.

"Yeah! Rape victim, killing Admirals! What is Skal thinking bringing this out?" Red sighed, shaking his head. "Well I have just the plan."

"Wait until after the first call!"

Xxx

Skal vanished, and the Drone hummed for several moments before it projected a new image.

"**Calling from Irk: Invader Grimrair!"**

Skullene's eyes widened as the image of her older brother appeared. It was life sized, so he was about a head or so taller than her. He did not have his armour, but he wore the poncho their mother, Miyuki had made for him.

"Hello Skulls," The left side of Grim's mouth curled up into a smile. "Been a while since we've talked last time form what I remember."

"And from what I remember you were lecturing me for trying to kill Red." Skullene's eyes narrowed.

"Skullene, I'm not here to scold you for anything," Grim shook his head. "You're my sister; I'm here to support you!"

Grim wouldn't lie...not when he brought up the taboo words: sister, brother, mother, father, daughter, son, or family. He took it more seriously than anybody else in the family. Envon cared more about his work than the past, Skullene was too worried surviving to bond with her family, Hellion was too busy being...Hellion, and Paneece was too busy hacking networks and selling data on the black market.

"Alright...so...how's everything been?" Skullene asked.

"Well as you can see I suffered a rather tragic accident." Grim tapped the twisted stump where one of his antenna used to be, and then ran a hand along his new scar.

"Holy-how did _that_ happen?" Skullene asked, shocked.

"Let's just say I got arrogant in a fight," Grim sighed. "Don't let it happen to you Skull. You got off lucky against that first opponent. When you fell into that lake I was about ready to shoot myself across the galaxy and fish you out."

"..." Skullene just stared at him.

"What?"

"No you weren't."

"Skullene, what's wrong?"

"You're too loyal to the empire to do that." Skullene shook her head.

"Skulls...look, if I knew where they were holding you I would have-"

"No." Skullene shook her head. "Sorry Grim...but it's been far too much time since I was the little girl with the pet name who came crying to you over nightmares. I need some more time before I can..."

Trust him again? Rely on him to choose his family over the empire? Trust him to help her when she actually needed it?

"Skullene," Grim sounded more stern now. "Look...the reason I didn't arrive to see you off before you went to the tournament...I had a mission."

"Don't worry Grim, I-"

"No," Grim shook his head. "Hold on." He looked off to his side. "Good, Paneece is giving that Skal guy a nice fake argument to look at."

"What?"

"Skullene...I had to track down and kill Yev Baron for data he stole about the Renaissance Project." Grim stated tersely.

"Shen's cousin?"

"He was a criminal before Irk was in power and he was about a disaster for you me, Envon, Hellion, and Paneece." Grim cut of any arguments she was about to make. "I got this scar because I let myself get too cocky, thinking he'd never fight back. But I had to kill him. He...he knew everything about us."

"...everything?"

"Yes, _everything._" Grim said. "He was going to reveal it to the galaxy at large...I couldn't let him or anybody else near him live. Not when you all were in danger. I'd have had a chance to escape, but you all...Red and Purple, the Control Brains would never have stopped hunting for you all. Envon was in the palace during my mission, and he knew where all of you were. If they got him, they'd get all of you. I told Red and Purple the data was destroyed."

...did he actually say he just _hid_ information from the empire?

"Grim..."

"I know I haven't been the best brother, especially since _maneem_ died." Grim sighed. "But...after what was done to you, you deserve the chance to win, to never deal with this empire's _caragash_ again." He ran one hand over his poncho. "Sis...I'm rooting for you. Please...come back alive."

Skullene bit her lip, bowing her head a bit. "Grim..._sesova_..." She was shaking. "Thank you..." It barely came out when she said it.

"When you get back, we'll all be here," Grim said, encouraging her. "We'll be waiting for you to get off of Doom. And when you get back we're throwing the biggest damn party ever. I'm even bringing Shen and the IDIOTs along!"

"They're there?" Skullene actually laughed a bit. "Thanks Grim."

She stood up, a smile on her tear stained face. "If Hellion gropes my ass when I get back, he's as dead as these guys are."

"Noted," Grim cracked a smile. "Now go kick some ass sis."

"Got it..._Alfeer._" Skullene said, using the pet name everybody had for Grim when he was younger as affectionately as she had when she was barely up to his stomach and grinning up at him.

So long ago...so freaking long ago it was like another life altogether.

"**Ten seconds to live broadcast!"** The robot, most likely automated now informed Skullene.

Cursing, Skullene looked to her brother. "I promise I'll come back brother! I'll come back; I'll give you a big hug just like old times and give Shen a big kiss!"

"I'll let him know about that last one." Grim waved one hand. "Good luck! And remember _seseva_, don't let your guard-" He vanished.

"**And we are back!"** Skal announced. **"Now let's keep asking the piece of crap traitor more stuff! Question Five Skullene: did you have sex with a massively defective Irken known as Hellion?"**

"ARE YOU FLORPING JOKING WITH ME?" Skullene shouted. "Even Red has a better chance than Hellion!"

Xxx

"Score." Red smirked.

"...you really just wanted to hear her say that, didn't you?" Purple glared at Red.

"Yep." Red took a sip of his drink.

"So...I'm guessing we're giving up on that Smear Campaign idea?"

"For now. The boys in Intelligence are still looking for some Dirty Laundry to use." Red shrugged. "In the meantime, MORE NACHOS!"

"AND DONUTS!" Purple added.

Xxx

After many questions and attempts to smear her or just plain piss her off, Skal seemed to have run out of questions.

"**Well let's see your change in ratings." **The tall Irken looked to his right as a chart appeared with the X axis marked 'Questions' and the Y axis marked as 'views'.

It started at a few thousand by question one, a few hundred less by question two, a little less by three, but it went up a whole lot by four! From that point on it 'only' went up.

"**You began with seven thousand-four hundred-nineteen views on this interview...and ended with four hundred-eighty six thousand-nine hundred-ninety seven by the end of it..."** Skal glared at her ,but kept his tone. **"Great. Well good luck **_**Skullene.**_**"**

Skullene flipped him the bird, a gesture she learned from a brief visit to Earth. If he was going to act like a smeet then she could too!

The image vanished, and the drone turned as if to leave. But then it began to jerk and spasm, sparks flying from it. Skullene leaped to the other side of the pool surrounding her island's fire. She watched as it turned to face her.

It then projected a typed message.

_**Skullene**_

_**Better get out there and kick ass and take names. I'll be florped if ya don't beat this competition. PLUS if any of your 'idiots' go on a rant about me then you might as well tell them a certain 'hogulus' has it's ears open if ya catch my drift. And in some way you landed me an interesting position. Needless to say if your 'brother' has any news regarding any 'spooks' that have been raiding some Armada depots, don't be surprised. It's gonna be more special here on my end. Just to let ya know, in an earth solar year, go to a bar around conventia called Vi'for's. We'll speak from there.**_

_**Yours sincerely,**_

_**Mr. black op**_

No points for guessing who left that note. Her Defective friend had better luck getting out of this blizzard than she had.

And she had a whole year to wait before she and he could have a civil chat. By the time she was done recovering physically and mentally she probably wouldn't have to wait for long...if she survived at all.

"Well then, I'll see you then Mr Black Op." She smirked.

"Who's Mr Black Op?" Skullene jumped as her visor activated and displayed a picture of her youngest sister, Paneece.

"Pan?"

"Skully!" Pan squealed. "Finally! I tried to hack my way into the drone again, but somebody was making it take longer than it should have."

"It was already hacked," Skullene explained.

"Oh...well I just rehacked it!" Pan declared. "Nobody can hear us on this frequency."

"Is everybody alright over there?"

"Kinda," Pan shrugged. "Hellion went on a chainsaw rampage when Kay took his popcorn, took off Lok's leg, Kay's arm, and one of Envon's antennae."

"Glad to see he's still at it then," Skullene smiled. "Is Shen there also?"

"Just recovered from a caffeine overdose," Pan tugged the Vortian into sight.

"_Compia!"_ Shen grinned.

"Hey there Shen," Skullene said, hiding a blush as he blurted out the Vortian word for 'mate'. "Long time no see-"

"Skullene, I swear after this I am hand cuffing you to me at all times!" Shen suddenly went on a rant. "And if you ever enter something as dangerous as this again I will chain you to your bed if that's what it takes to keep you from going on these insane adventures!"

"Miss you too Shen," Skullene rubbed the back of her head awkwardly.

"But before we do any chaining or hand cuffing or other bondage related crap I'm getting you the biggest, fanciest dinner I can buy to celebrate!" Shen's positive attitude returned.

"Why Captain, I feel embarrassed," Skullene put her hands on her hips, knowing she was being projected for the whole group to see. "Are you offering me a date?"

Shen sputtered.

"Aw calm down you Horny Pirate." Skullene giggled.

"Horny? I'm not horny-I-i-uh-"

"The horns." Lok whispered from of screen.

"Oh," His cheeks turned a darker shade of gray. "Really cute _Skully._"

"I look forward to being hand cuffed to you for eternity after this," Skullene waved. "Hey everybody!"

"_Skully!" _Kay squealed.

"_Yo," _Loe drawled.

"_You're kicking ass!"_ Lok shouted.

"_Hey sis!"_ Envon called.

"_My angel!" _Hellion cheered before Shen drop kicked the insane Irken.

"Grim isn't there?"

"_Didn't want to be in the same room as Hellion watching you on the screen, especially during your dip."_ Paneece explained. _"I was hacking for him from here."_

"Ah," Skullene nodded. "Thanks Pan."

"_It's all good sis!_" Paneece smiled sweetly. "_Now get out of that tundra and kick your next opponent's ass_!"

"Alright Pan," Skullene nodded. "Love you all...and yes, you too Hellion."

The homicidal, cannibalistic maniac cheered.

"I'd better get moving while things have calmed down out there," Skullene said.

"Don't worry, the way that guy handled the interview he just made you more popular." Paneece giggled. "See you after the tournament sis!"

"See you all later!" Skullene waved one last time, and then the drone turned and flew away.

"Yeah...later..." She picked up her pack. "Hopefully."

She kicked at the pieces of kindling, extinguishing the fire. She then hopped off of the small island, beign careful not to lose her balance and landed on the edge of the pool. Straightening her pack, she checked the rest of her equipment, making sure she hadn't forgotten her pocket pistol again. she had just barely managed to save it from some sort of animal that tried to take a bite out of it.

Skullene walked over to the edge of the low cliff. She could now see the entire valley below her. She was about fifty feet off of the ground, and managed to see the valley open up to where a terrain consisting of sky scrapers and roads was clearly visible, the sun light glinting off of the tallest buildings.

"Awesome," Skullene whispered.

The first thing she would do is find a safe place she could scout out the city from, preferably some place extremely high up.

Holding up Ray's assault rifle, she rushed through the snow, feeling the temperature changed wit hevery foot.

And then the bounty hunter leaped from the cold, snow covered waste land...

And landed on a sidewalk.

Just like stepping into a new world.

Xxx

I derive most of the alien words I use from latin words I mess around with.

Here's a few examples. On the left are words I make up. On the right are English translations I based the latin words from.

Ligni- stick

Troitusun-Entrance

Ickan-Blow

Provain- Assignment (Job in Latin is 'Job' so...yeah)

Saccen-Sack (Pretty obvious what this relates to)

Asunim-Ass

Maneem- (Not my word, provided as Grim's volcabulary)

Sesova- means Brother, can't remember the word.

Alfeer-I used the words second and brother and took a bit from each, but it means 'tough guy'

Seseva- means sister

Compia- Vortian, based from Italian translation of the word 'mate'.


End file.
